Software AG has introduced iKnow, a visibility product for managing the order-to-cash process. According to the vendor, the new tool provides users with the knowledge and context needed to detect and diagnose supply-chain anomalies in real time.

Gartner Inc. has released the findings from its eighth annual Supply Chain Top 25, its initiative to raise awareness of the supply chain discipline and how it impacts the business, and once again Apple topped the list. The supply chain top five included two other mainstays; Dell and P+G; and two that are newer to the ranking, but have been rising steadily; Amazon and McDonald's.

As the former CFO of such companies as Sprint, Eastman Kodak Co. and Unisys Corp., as well as vice president of finance of General Electric Co.'s plastics division, Robert Brust's management philosophy was to bring procurement into the finance department, at times meeting daily with the purchasing team to go over expenditures line by line.

Supply management professionals are uniquely positioned to influence a company's environmental sustainability efforts as well as the performance of supply base partners in this area. But where are the standards and metrics?

Traceability always has been important to dairy cooperative Agri-Mark, but it has become even more of a focus since passage in 2010 of The Food Safety Modernization Act, which gives the Food and Drug Administration the right to make product recalls mandatory, rather than voluntary.

The worldwide supply chain management software market totaled $7.7bn in 2011, a 12.3-percent increase from 2010, according to Gartner Inc. It was the second year of double-digit growth for the SCM software market as supply chain investments kept their priority status and moved forward, despite caution from IT budget decision makers.

As a leading contract manufacturer of electronics, Celestica works with a diverse supply base comprised of thousands of vendors. Six years ago, the company began a major initiative to gain better visibility and control of supplier performance, an effort that led to creation of a proprietary supplier collaboration tool known as Live Share.

California cantaloupe handlers have voted overwhelmingly in support of the state's first mandatory food safety program to be implemented by a commodity board. The California Department of Food and Agriculture said that 100 percent of handlers voting in a statewide referendum are in favor of amending the existing California Cantaloupe Advisory Board to establish the new food safety program.